A GOP switch on Akin?

Rep. Todd Akin and the Missouri Republican Party are launching a nearly $700,000 TV ad blitz in the closing days of his challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, but the source of the funds for the effort is unclear.

These are the first ads run by the Missouri GOP in conjunction with Akin’s campaign. Of the total, $386,000 will come from the Missouri GOP to pay for the ad run, with the remaining supplied by Akin’s committee.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee declined repeatedly to comment on whether it is the source of the funds being used by the Missouri GOP on Akin’s behalf. Previously, the committee has insisted it would stay out of the race.

However, only national committees — the NRSC or the Republican National Committee — or individual campaign committees that raise money in compliance with federal limits are permitted to shift funds to a state party for a coordinated ad buy.

A spokesman for the Missouri GOP said it does not comment on its advertising strategy. The RNC could not be reached for comment.

If the NRSC did pay for even a portion of the Akin ad blitz, it would be a stunning reversal by Texas Sen. John Cornyn and other Senate GOP leaders.

Cornyn and other top Republicans distanced themselves from Akin after he declared in mid-August that women’s bodies can shut down and avoid pregnancy after a “legitimate rape.”

Cornyn then called on Akin to drop out of the race but Akin refused. GOP strategists said the NRSC had been prepared to spend up to $5 million to help Akin defeat the vulnerable McCaskill but instead shifted the funds to other races.

In an interview in September, Cornyn adamantly insisted the NRSC would not be involved at all in the Missouri race if Akin stayed in as the GOP candidate.

“We’re done,” Cornyn told POLITICO.

But with a once-promising Senate landscape having shifted against the Republicans, they may have changed their stance on an Akin boycott. The NRSC would not have to disclose any such transfer to the Missouri GOP until after Election Day, limiting any fallout for Cornyn if he reversed himself.

As of Sept. 30, Akin reported only $553,000 in cash on hand, according to campaign filings. And the Missouri Republican Party had only $375,000 available for the Akin buy, according to its own filings.

Democrats would undoubtedly pounce on such a move as a sign of Republican hypocrisy. McCaskill has maintained a steady 5- to 6-point lead in most recent Missouri polls, although Akin and his allies have pushed their own surveys showing the race as much closer.

Rick Tyler, an Akin spokesman, said the campaign will spend $1 million this week on its TV buy. Akin aides initially said his campaign would fund the whole ad buy but later revised that statement.

“The latest public poll by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch … had Todd 2 points behind Claire McCaskill,” Tyler said. “That’s remarkable considering she has spent a record amount for Missouri on negative advertising. She has thrown the kitchen sink at Todd yet we are even.”

“Claire McCaskill has voted with Barack Obama 95% of the time since 2010, supporting Obamacare, the stimulus, and massive new taxes on American job creators,” Prouty said in a statement to POLITICO. “More recently, we learned that McCaskill’s low-income housing empire has taken millions of dollars of federal subsidies, including $1 million from the stimulus, and a whistle-blower accused her husband of cutting business deals in the Senate dining room. That’s why the Missouri Republican Party and our many supporters are committed to doing everything we can to defeat Claire McCaskill and elect Todd Akin.”